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Event Listing - Festivals that celebrate our railways

Stay on the right track with beer festivals that celebrate our railways

Hoping to combine a CAMRA beer festival with a great rail journey or an opportunity to discover more about trains? There are plenty of events that offer the chance to do both!

Market Bosworth Rail Ale Festival

21-23 July 2017

Eight years ago the first Rail Ale Festival was held in the Shackerstone Station, but has now grown into an official CAMRA beer festival running alongside a vintage rally. The event takes place in and around the Goods Shed at Market Bosworth Station with ales also served from the Griddle Car bar on the trains. Visitors can expect to see an eclectic mix of historic vehicles, including 10 live steam road locomotives, miniature traction engines and vintage commercial vehicles, with trains in operation on the Friday afternoon. Family friendly during the daytime, the festival also boasts a children's bouncy castle, fairground organ and entertainment.

Hailed as the original railway museum festival, the Chappel Beer Festival is held at the East Anglian Railway museum among the exhibits. Now 31 years old, the Department of Transport even runs a special service to the event as part of the Greater Anglia Franchise. With over 460 beers including new, rare and local brews and 100 ciders, visitors should also take a look at the Big Tent Bar, which is new for this year.

Held at the Crewe Railway Heritage Centre, the festival includes mini train rides, railway displays, and access to the vintage vehicles, diesel and electric locomotives and signal boxes. If that's not enough, why not sit on the APT train and watch the modern trains rush by on the West Coast mainline. For the cost of entry to the beer festival visitors can tour all of the Heritage centres exhibits too!

A perfect opportunity to celebrate 50 years of Milton Keynes, the festival is also held close to the MK Museum, which has a dedicated exhibit to Wolverton Works. Wolverton developed its huge importance in the early years of Victorian railways as the first "stop" from London on mainline rail journeys when trains had no toilets or buffets - so trains stopped at Wolverton for (lengthy periods) for refreshment and breaks. This helped development of brewing in the area to meet these needs. The festival, which is now in its 24th year, has a Golden Ales theme to honour the birthday celebrations of the town.

This festival may be of special interest to rail enthusiasts as it provides a chance to try out the Stourbridge Shuttle - a single car light railway system that serves only two stations. The high frequency, environmentally friendly service can be used to the festival. Although it's too early to detail exactly what will be on offer, the festival has previously offered a varied beer and cider list, a range of hot and cold food and merchandise stands.

CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, is a not-for-profit consumer group with over 187,000 members that has been operating since 1971. Our vision is to have quality real ale and thriving pubs in every community.

Press Releases

The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) is calling for a new deal for pubs in response to fresh data which reveals 18 pubs are being lost each week. The consumer group says that urgent action is needed to cut the tax burden placed on pubs.

The Flixton Conservative Club in Manchester has won the prestigious Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) Club of the Year award after a recent transformation has seen an even wider range of real ales and ciders brought in.